Following The First Lady

First Lady Mary Pat Christie names her first NJ Hero of 2012

Meeting our January hero, Malcolm, really struck a chord with me today. Malcolm was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma at the age of 10. As he was sitting in his hospital room with his mom, he looked around at all the other kids in the pediatric cancer ward and realized that someone really needed to make some noise about this disease. He saw that 1 in 320 children are diagnosed with cancer before their 21st birthday, yet pediatric cancer research receives less than 3% of all cancer research funding. He knew something had to be done about it. It was then and there that he told his mom he wanted to start a non-profit foundation to make some noise about pediatric cancer and to have all donations they receive go towards the cure. That is now Make Some Noise was started from a hospital bed with Malcolm and his mom. Since then the foundation has raised over $600,000 in just 3 years. There are multiple states in the pipeline waiting to start their own chapters of Make Some Noise because of all the great work Malcolm is doing. It is incredible that at his age he is making such an impact on people nationwide. Today I had a chance to hear Malcolm's story and also the stories from the young people that make up his Junior Board. It was great to meet them and learn their first hand experiences with pediatric cancer... it really shined a light on an issue that doesn't get nearly enough attention. I encourage you to visit Malcolm's site: http://www.makenoise4kids.org and try to help them "Make Some Noise" to help find a cure for pediatric cancer.